personal

I started a little tumblr called Pictures of People Taking Pictures of my Car. The little Fiat gets photographed a billion times a day and at some point I started taking pictures of people taking pictures until I had a decent collection going. It’s silly but it makes me laugh and now I have a place to put my photos.

ps: We filmed a little commercial for Ebay last month. It’s filled with things we actually bought from Ebay (like the car!) I’ve heard you can see it on Youtube as a commercial but for anyone that is curious you can see them right here. It was really fun to make and I love how they turned out.

Today, I’m really excited to announce my partnership with in Too Small To Fail – a joint initiative between The Clinton Foundation and Next Generation. Their goal is to improve the development of kids in America (you can read all about it here.) Research shows that over 80% of a child’s brain develops before they turn 3 – so it’s important for parents and communities to spend quality time interacting with kids in positive ways. I’ve caught myself sounding like a dork talking to my toddlers because it looks like I’m talking to myself “this is our favorite park and wow! look at that big tree.” But the research shows that talking with your kids and giving them that eye to eye contact is what really helps them develop. I have been wanting to create some habits to make sure I spend more time with my kiddos so I’m setting a few goals on Go Mighty over the next few months. I’ll be sharing my experiences there. I’d love to hear if you have any tips on what kind of activities have helped you spend quality time with the kids in your life. (ie: Volunteer at their preschool, go to the park everyday, read together everyday, play games together, etc) I’d love any ideas.

If you follow my instagram they you may have seen I bought a new car! I have wanted to buy a vintage FIAT 500 for several years (see herehere, and here.) A few weeks ago I found one for an extremely good deal on Ebay and usually when I find one I like they are across the country, so when I saw it was nearby it was pretty tempting. There was a steep curve learning to drive it but I think we have it down now. We had to learn a few things like the radio doesn’t turn off when you turn off the car. You have to manually turn it off so I was draining the battery without knowing it! It wouldn’t start and I couldn’t figure out why. Ha! Also, when I drive it I have to “double clutch” it. It took a minute to adjust to but now I drive it like a champ. We had seatbelts installed in the back (it’s so funny to think they didn’t even have seatbelts) so now we’ve been going on little joyrides around the city with the family. It is super fun to drive and everyone waves to you and yells “I like your car!” It is really easy to find parking so it has been the perfect car to zip around the neighborhood in.

p.s.: I’m obsessed with this dress I got from Madewell. It’s the perfect dress. I like that it will transition to the cold weather nicely with a pair of tights (Holiday Parties!)

The last few years Paul and I have started giving each other solo vacations. I’m not talking about sending one person off to a conference or a guys’ trip. It’s where we take the kids and leave the other person at home for five days or so. There is something so luxurious about living my regular routine but I only have to think about one person (moi!) I can roll out of bed right before my meeting, I can go to movies without even thinking about trying to coordinate a sitter, I can go running at any hour of the day and don’t have to worry about who is gonna do pick-up. It is really fun! This week Paul packed up the kids and took them for a visit to his family’s house. I’m stoked for some alone time. It is funny but one of the things I’m most excited about is cleaning out my closets. I’m going to have uninterrupted time to put things in piles and take things to Goodwill. I’m stoked! The picture below is when I took the kids and left Paul home for his time off. Have you ever had a solo vacation away from family responsibilities? Of course I can’t wait for them all to get back at the end of the week, but in the mean time I’m gonna walk around the house in my underwear and eat peanut butter straight from the jar.

It was my birthday yesterday! I love birthdays and yesterday was a good one. Paul got a bunch of friends and family to send in video of them saying happy birthday and made a movie for me. Then he set up a little screening in our studio and invited people over for cake. It was a total surprise and I loved it. It makes such a difference to hear people’s voices. I will definitely do something like this in the future for people. I think it is my favorite birthday present ever. I hope everyone has a good weekend. We have a crazy weekend that involves: applying for kindergarten, a photoshoot, throwing a baby shower, and packing for Alt Summit next week. It is nice to stay busy to avoid the January blues. Have a good one!